Pelindung Beach

This was (I think) the most underrated beach in Kuantan.  It's actually in the midst of a fishing village which may be the reason it's not being promoted to tourists.  But having a picnic there some 2 weeks ago made us realized that that's where we want to live. 

There's only a short stretch of road that we could move and in the end we decided to stop in front of this vacant lot - and we found the perfect spot for our next house! Ooo la la!

 We brought Nasi Lemak and some chicken to go with the Nasi Lemak.

 Nina found a spot for her.

They were sitting side by side - something very rare!

 Mmmm.....

The colour of the sea and they sky there with south-bound migration birds in the middle of the sea. Aahhh Heavenly!

It was noon but she jumped into the sea anyway.

 Nina was keeping watch over Zoey.

 Papa was napping while Asha continued eating.

The perfect spot under the tree.

Behind us was the vacant lot

Fussing over Zoey 

Like a mother hen.

I was standing with my back to the sea and facing the empty lot.

  A panoramic view of the area.  The fishing village was at the end of the road.

 Made this that weekend

 First attempt

It was a success

So let's pray for our dream to come true!

A Quirky Picnic in Cherating (or somewhere...)

It was a bit cloudy that day but we just had to go out.  So, we chose CHerating because the water was shallow and near.  It was almost 6.00pm but when we arrived there, there were quite a handful of people.  So we joined them in the sea, including myself (hence no picture of any one of us playing the water). 

About 7.00pm we got out from the sea and washed ourselves at a nearby public toilet.  It was getting dark and the clouds were really heavy.  It started drizzling and we managed to get into the car and drove off.  They only thing we didn't manage to do was to eat something although we brought some food.

On the way home, Papa was getting sick.  His blood pressure was low because he was very hungry.  We had to find somewhere to stop and eat.  It was still raining.  Papa kept driving despite becoming weaker by the minute.  As the rain slowly subsided we found an empty spot by the roadside and decided to stop there.  It was a bus-stop and since it was dark and raining, nobody was there.

Thus was our picnic that day.  People and traffic passing by, the rain, us enjoying our food - fun and quirky.  After about half an hour, we continued our way home.  The most important thing was that we're able to enjoy the sea.

Made an apple pie for them this week. Delish!

Pantai Hiburan, Kuala Rompin, Pahang

Last Monday I took the day off.  So, I had 4 days off because Tuesday was a public holiday.  But we couldn't go anywhere far because Nina had extra classes in school.  So, on Sunday we traveled to the south of Pahang to Kuala Rompin.  We didn't know what to expect except that there's a beach there.  We started off a it late in the afternoon and arrived there at about 5.30pm.  It was about 1.5 hours drive from Kuantan.

 It was a bit late when we arrived but there were still a lot of people on the beach.  Anyway, the sun wasn't setting yet.  It was just the haze and the atmosphere was a bit gloomy.

While I was waiting for Papa to move the car to a nearby spot, they went to buy some ice-creams.

We found a spot with a bench.

The haze made the sun looked pretty.

That's not fog but haze.

As usual, Zoey's the only one enjoying the sea.  We didn't want to take a dip with her because the waster was too shallow and the restroom was a bit farther away from the spot where we're picnicking.  So, she joined a couple of husband and wife while Papa and I just looked on.

There weren't a lot of interesting subjects for me to take pictures.  Papa saw this small crab having a baby marlin's head for dinner.

Another sea creature which I didn't know what but looked like some sort of shelled creatures hanging on to some roots.

Another one of those.

 A view of the stretch of the beach.

Asha was as usual busy sketching something, even if she only had a piece of newspaper as the medium.

We decided not to overnight there because it wasn't that far from Kuantan.  So, by about 7.00pm, we left and stopped in Pekan for dinner.

My verdict?  Not a choice of beach but then. it's better than nothing.

Pantai Penunjuk, Kijal, Terengganu

It's been a while since my last entry. 

So anyway, two weeks ago we went to Pantai Penunjuk in the south of Terengganu.  I was searching for Pantai Chendor, Pahang and came upon a blog (I can't remember the name, though) and one of the entries was about Pantai Penunjuk.  So, the next day, we travelled to Terengganu (about 40 minutes drive from our house in Kuantan).

 I printed a map to the beach from google map.

 Another map which was more focused.

And the third map showing the stretch.  Maps are handy.  Unlike GPS, they're always easier to flip black and forth.  So, I was the co-pilot most of the time being better at reading maps compared to Papa.

 We almost missed the sign.  So we made a u-turn and followed the arrow.  It turned out that we've been to this beach before - a day before the big flood last year but we didn't stop long because the wind was too strong.  The beach was beautiful.  We decided to venture a bit to find a suitable spot to have a picnic.  So, Papa just drove the car along the stretch.

We saw this big and beautiful house which turned out to be a Bed and Breakfast.

It was noon.  I saw a shack on the left of this tree with many fishermen relaxing but I was to shy to stop and snap their pictures.  Instead, I just took a picture of this tree. But the setting was beautiful.

 There were a lot of shelters like this one along the beach.

Some of them were run down like this one. Fishing equipments were kept here.

Some were used as resting shelters by the fishermen like this one.

 Many villagers were helping to berth the fishing boat that just came in from the sea.

 At another area, we saw some people drying the anchovies.

It looked like either it's a family business or these children were just helping their parents.

But most of them were just watching the ladies spreading the anchovies to be dried up.

Mengkuang mats were used to dry the anchovies.

We made a turn because we still couldn't find the perfect spot and came back to the B-and-B.  How I wished to have a house facing the sea like this one.  It'd be so cool!

There were many mini shelters like this one.  It's very convenient.  So we set up lunch and ate before venturing to the beach.

Zoey's an animal person.  So, she asked me to snap a picture of this bug.

This beholding sight would catch anyone's breath away if you're there in person.  They were boulders in the sea.

 We also found a lot of dead starfish on the beach.

They're everywhere.

And we're moving towards the boulders.

The first one was this split boulder.  It's huge!

It's accessible if you're in for a bit of climbing.

 Nina took this picture of me when we were in the midst of the boulders.

Zoey's playing hide-and-seek between the rocks.

Papa was busy on his own.

I was standing in the middle of this very shallow river and took a snap of the river mouth.

Hmmm... I should've tasted the water there!

Then, I walked a bit further up the river to this boat that seemed stranded.  It's actually low tide when we were there.  I guessed they took the boat in at high tide.

 As for the ones at sea, it's suitable for fishing.

 Local children playing around.

 Carefree and enjoying themselves.

They had a boat!

After a while, they went off in their boat.

Zoey was enjoying herself playing with the waves.

The water was very shallow.  But since the public toilet wasn't open, we just let Zoey took a dip and there wasn't any other place around to change our clothes.  As for this part, Cherating Beach wins hands down.

 A strip of sandbar leading to the boulders at sea.

Enjoying her alone time.

And when I turned around, I saw an eagle flying low.

These boys were searching for shells.

I wanted to rest under the shelter. So, I told Asha to look after Zoey.  She took it literally just to show me that's she's not really interested to look after her younger sister.


Here are some panoramic pictures of the area.

We had our picnic under the shades of those trees on the left and it was a bit of a walk to reach the boulders on the right.

Thus was our beach retreat.  I love this beach.  Heck! I love all of them!  I'm glad that we won't be leaving  the east coast just yet.